PHILADELPHIA – At one point during Saturday’s Syracuse-Villanova game, Hakim Warrick pointed to the nosebleeds in tribute to his friends who made the trip from nearby Wynnewood, Pa. where Warrick grew up.

‘They were probably kind of mad with the tickets they got, but I tried to give them some love by pointing,’ he said.

Warrick gave them more than love, though. He dropped 32 points, a career high, on the Wildcats in a 90-75 romp at the Wachovia Center in front of 19,966 on Saturday. The win was SU’s most complete game in weeks.

From the start, the Orange (22-3, 9-2 Big East) proved to be VU’s Goliath, taking the lead at 14:10 of the first half and never giving it back. Where rebounding had been a problem for SU in its three losses this season, it was the Orange’s key to victory against the Wildcats.

‘We rebounded better,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We’d been getting beat very badly in the last three games on the boards. I thought we did a better job there.’

The Orange outrebounded Villanova’s three-guard lineup, 44-36. Syracuse center Craig Forth had 10 rebounds, while Warrick added 12. Size was a factor as Forth had four inches on Villanova’s tallest starter, Will Sheridan.

‘We knew they were going to try to trap us and use their speed and quickness,’ Warrick said. ‘We tried to limit their second-chance points using our size. Whenever you got a 7-foot guy against those guards, you want to outrebound them.’

As for Warrick, he simply jumped over the competition.

‘We knew coming in that rebounding was the key,’ Warrick said.

The Wildcats’ (14-6, 5-5) tried using its 2-1-2 full-court trap early to create turnovers in transition. It worked temporarily, causing guard Gerry McNamara to throw the ball away on SU’s first possession against the trap.

‘We handled their pressure and their trapping,’ Boeheim said. ‘We got to the basket and we got to Hakim.’

Warrick’s domination featured five dunks, three lay-ups and two jumpers within five feet of the basket. The mid-range game he developed this off-season was never needed.

‘I told myself I was going to let the game come to me,’ Warrick said. ‘They did a good job of getting the ball to me so I didn’t have to force anything.’

The game was Warrick’s first time playing in front of a hometown Philadelphia crowd since Feb. 28, 2002. The Orange lost to Villanova then, 67-61.

‘Hakim was Hakim,’ SU forward Terrence Roberts. ‘He’s gonna get his regardless. This is nothing new. I knew he wanted to come in here and play well against a crowd that was rooting for him.’

Warrick said playing in Philadelphia gave him more incentive in Saturday’s game. Until his senior year, the Big 5 schools of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph’s, Temple, LaSalle and Villanova barely recruited him.

‘I think I was overlooked,’ he said. ‘Senior year was when they started to focus in on me. It was too late.’

Boeheim was pleased with the way Syracuse played against Connecticut on Monday, but he said Saturday’s game was an improvement.

‘I thought this was one of our better efforts in the league in terms of balance,’ he said. ‘We made three bad turnovers, but other than that there was nothing much that was bad abosut today.’

Published on February 12, 2005 at 12:00 pm